A bone osteotomy is a surgical procedure in which bone is cut and/or pieces of the bone are removed to correct abnormalities due to trauma, disease, malformation, and the like. Osteotomies may be used to correct bone morphology in several different planes or fields of reference, including but not limited to: valgus-varus, flexion-extension, internal-external rotation, lengthening-shortening, medial-lateral displacement, dorsal-ventral displacement, and the like. Osteotomies may also be used to correct specific conditions, including but not limited to: (1) variation in growth of paired bones; (2) eccentric epiphysiodesis; (3) diaphyseal angulation due to malunion fractures or growth anomalies; (4) torsional deformities; (5) limb length discrepancies; (6) correction of disease whereby an osteotomy of normal bone may correct a disease condition; and/or (7) any other suitable bone related condition.
A wedge osteotomy is a type of osteotomy in which a wedge-shape may be formed in a bone and/or a wedge-shaped piece of bone may be removed from a bone to correct bone morphology, angular deformity, joint alignment issues, or any other bone related medical condition. For example, a tibial bone osteotomy may be used to realign a knee joint with arthritic damage. In this example, the general goal may be to shift a patient's body weight from one side of the knee joint with arthritic damage to another side of the knee joint where the cartilage may be healthy. A surgeon may accomplish this goal by either inserting or removing a bone wedge in the tibia underneath the knee joint. This may allow the tibia and femur to bend away from the damaged cartilage area and place more weight on the healthy side of the knee joint. Another wedge osteotomy example is a calcaneal bone wedge osteotomy. A calcaneal bone wedge osteotomy may also be used to realign a proximal intertarsal joint and/or a talocalcaneal joint in a foot.
While the bone implants discussed in the present disclosure are described in terms of two example embodiments that correct bone related conditions in the knee and foot respectively, it will be understood that the bone implants of the present disclosure may also be used in other bones, joints, and/or surgical procedures to correct any number of bone related conditions.